I finaly came to a conclusion bit the bullet and made a decision on the next tyre for my new (rapidly aging) shiny Toy
On my F650GS twin having done 9,300 miles.
Just before christmas I actualy purchased one of the tyre deals from NN. I had come to an earlier conclusion that I realy liked the look of the TKC having a great off road look not a real nobly as you would call it as the sections are flat for a on road off road dual capability, but maybe being more off road biased.
so i tried to read and research as much as i could forum links, pie charts you name it i read it.
some said the tkc would not be much good on say a surface such as wet grass and looking at the design once like any tyre the grooves were full they would become a slick if the material in the grooves could not be expelled.
I had also read that people had comented that when slowing on tarmac there was the brrrrrrrbrrrrrrrrrr sound (sorry i have a sound in my haid but i do not know how to spell it!) also at low speed the bike on tarmac can become slightly unstable maybe it was the brrrrrrrbrrrrrrrrr
but still i liked the look of the TKC it just looks so rugged roads just adding to the adventure look almost finnishing the look of the bike off.
I found my self starring at tyres on adventure bikes googling tkc's on F650GS twins, read more forum links yes even outside ukgser. more pie charts.
I had been happy with the original Tomb stone death wings great in the dry but i felt the back twitch a few times in the wet but if im honest and think about my riding ability were the twitches just my young hours in the saddle were the twitches rider errors changing gears at the wrong place
not so smooth
revs to high revs to low
found my self going around wet roundabouts in the rain like driving miss Daisey
(waiting for that twitch)
But i was fortunate to be among some very experienced riders on a trip to Scotland last October 09 (three day trip leave friday back home Sunday) two of us from essex had met up with three scottish guys somewhere between JOG and the east coast of scotland on the Saturday Morning me on my F658, to varadero's one 1150 GSA and one Africa twin It was a fantastic sunny day one of the best Scotland had seen in a while with little or no traffic beautifull dry perfect tarmac perfect visability no wind blue sky, sunny and dry as a bone on the down hill you could see around the right hand bend through to the next left hander nothing was there the bend was mine. they made it look so easy great lines so smooth were they riding gods? no just very experienced! All wearing huge smiles we ended up in lullapool hadock and chips all round as darkness fell, we then rode back our camp site the three local guys peeled off at there variouse turn offs. us to our tents at fortwilliam just making the bar for a couple of Rusty Nails! my tyres were nicely squared off.
On the way up Friday at the Green Welly me and my donkey.
Waking up to frost Saturday morning at the base of Ben Nevis.
A frosty start made our way to John O Groats via lochness , heres a view from the scottish commando memorial the light filtering through was fantastic starting to warm the frost and burn off the Fog
the sun burnt the frost off to be a fantastic Saturday day photo opertunities were fantastic stopping at secluded scottish east coast thats my bike in the middle luggage was left back at the tent.
anyhow where was I after long painstaking deliberation to the point of becoming a tyre anorak nerd from hell I went for a tyre deal from Nippy Normans with another GSer the only difference from my standard size was the rear section was 10mm wider so from 140 to 150mm.
the Tyre of final choice was the Metzeler Tourance a few things surrised me about the tyre was.
1. they say in the wet grip statistics it has more than twice the wet grip of my original tyre that I was happy with.
2.maybe a little more better dry grip than my original tyre that i was happy with.
3. It suprised me to know that my tyres now front and back on my F658 are identical sizing to the 1150 GS adventurer how BIzar
4. the metzler tourance is on so many avdventurer bikes! (hell even micky has them on his bike
)
5. the tourance was featured in this weeks MCN page 17 stating that tests were caried out by more than 12000 readers and it was voted number one out of ten others for TYRES FOR WET GRIP.
On a personal note i know that 96.333 % of my riding will be on wet or dry tarmac and I think that the Metzeler Tourance has a adventurer look that adds to the bike especialy compared to the originals. From what I have read i do realise that they will not last as long as in milage (less miles = sooner next purchase) but from a safer point of view and enjoyment of riding my bike for my purposes i can live with that. i just gotta get more miles under my belt (more experience = more fun = smoother rider = less twitch)
So new boots now to inspire the mind plan thet next trip burn some rubber so to speak in a fun way end of august is the last bank holiday planning a 6 day trip around that to south of france like last year via grenoble at the base of the french Alps.
august 09
ide like to camp scotland or maybe wales or Ireland or somewhere in England, lands end not been there yet.
Pass me the tarmac........
If anyone has got to the end of my long winded Tyre related thread.
as were still in the first week, I have not said it yet but Happy New Year to all and dont forget to check your tyres.
All the best,
Dean
done me proud 
then other surface and 
